


Element Bender

by Fiobri



Series: Eternal Cycle [18]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, One Piece
Genre: Accidental Dimension Travel, Adventure, Artistic Liberties, Bending (Avatar), Confusion, Crossover, Dimension Travel, Empathy, Gen, Mugiwara no Ichimi | Straw Hat Pirates, Reincarnation, Self-Insert, Shapeshifting, oc-insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:13:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24857410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fiobri/pseuds/Fiobri
Summary: She grew up with awareness not available to normal humans, not even the Avatar who was missing. Wind liked following her around and people said it was fate. The Chosen, they called her. The Sacrifice. But even sacrifices have loved ones and when the time came... Well. Let's just say no one could've predicted what happened next. Certainly not the leap to another world.Cycle 178. Mix Cycle, One Piece/ATLA.
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy & Original Female Character(s), Original Character & Original Character, Roronoa Zoro & Original Female Character(s)
Series: Eternal Cycle [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1314257
Comments: 25
Kudos: 77





	1. The Sacrifice

**Author's Note:**

> See what I mean about incapable of not publishing more things for this? Yet another Cycle start for you people... One I've had on my computer for a long time and decided to just, get on with it. 
> 
> For People Who Don't Know: This series is about a person being born in different worlds again and again with only one constant companion, Rina. They don't always remember everything and sometimes things happen to make them forget. Like here. 
> 
> This one is a little confusing and weird. Sorry 'bout that. And right now my focus is on my Doctor Who Cycle where the reincarnation adventures and botchers the timeline. It's called Child of Time and Relative Dimensions if you wanna check it out. 
> 
> Anyway, onto the prologue:

" _ Aria!! _ " 

_ Desperate _ . 

_ "NO! Don't- DON'T DO THIS!"  _

_ Pleading.  _

_ "T-They- we-  _ someone _ c-can close it, Aria,  _ please _ don't-!" _

_ Convincing.  _

_ "I DON'T WANT YOU TO LEAVE!"  _

_ …  _

_ Her heart  _ ached _.  _

_ "I'm sorry…", she'd said and smiled sadly, bitterly, "This has to be done. I was  _ made _ for this, exactly this. You know that" _

_ "I -hic- know…! But you're my  _ sister _ in all but blood" _

_ She was crying, trembling. She didn't  _ want  _ to leave him. But this was what they'd grown her into. A sacrifice in the name of the tribe.  _

_ Okata was an outsider. He had no voice here. Not that she did either.  _

_ "Hey. We'll never  _ truly _ leave each other as long as we remember" _

_ "But-"  _

_ "Okata" _

_ He cried silently. She laid a hand on his cheek.  _

_ "After this I’ll finally be  _ free _ "  _

_ And she turned.  _

_ …  _

_ Okata stared at her retreating back.  _

_ "I want you free", he said to himself, fists curling and tightening, "but not like  _ this _!"  _

_ …  _

_"Okata?_ Okata- _what-_ _!?"_

_ A strained grin answered her, leaving her gut to  _ drop _ as she realized. _

_ "You don't deserve this", he was saying.  _

_ She watched in growing horror, "Okata, NO!"  _

_ "Aria", he smiled as the spirit world swallowed him, "Be free and  _ live! _ " _

_ Terror. Pain. Heartbreak. But determination prevailed.  _

_ Aria jumped after him, water rising to her as easily as ever. She was the child of spirits and water. The rare sacrifice to close the tear of the spirit world.  _

_ She grabbed him. His eyes widened and fire burst forth. His fire. Trying to keep her away.  _

_ Not hurting. Never hurting.  _

_ She looked into his eyes.  _

_ "Together"  _

_ The tear would rip them apart any second. Otaka finally nodded.  _

_ "…Together"  _

_ …  _

_ Dana watched her  _ children _ disappear through the tear in horror.  _

_ "Mistress, what are you- STOP HER!!" _

_ Earth rose on her command as she shot herself through.  _

_ Aria. Otaka. Her children.  _

_ She wouldn't  _ let them _.  _

_ …  _

_ Spirit realm  _ lurched _ as too many elements, so much  _ willpower _ , coursed through the tear that pulsed between physical and spiritual.  _

_ The children and woman were covered with earth, fire, and water. Wind rose around them in a protective shield. Rina. _

_ Determination. To let them  _ live _.  _

_ Three pairs of eyes opened, glowing white. Reality twisted and  _ broke _. The tear ceased to be. Where Aria, Otaka, and Dana had been was nothing instead _ . 

_ Gone.  _

… 

…Or not. 

Aria woke up, gasping for breath. She hurt all over and felt dizzy. There was something wrong. Something  _ different _ . Trees above her head, grass beneath her, sky a rich blue and  _ way too bright for her headache _ . 

Memories. Bright and golden. They pulsed beneath her eyelids, circled inside her head.  _ Otaka _ .  _ Dana _ . _ …Rina. _ They were there. She was here. They were there but… not. Inside her mind. Almost. As though… Her breath hitched and she cried out in anguish. Emotions swarmed her head and before she knew it she was sobbing, screaming, waiting for the world to make  _ sense _ and  _ give her family back _ . Her body changed color, length, shape and it was new and weird and concerning but didn't hold her attention for long. 

Otaka and Dana were gone. Rina was  _ gone _ . But there still. 

There was only her-him-me and not  _ us _ . 

She was alone in a strange place. Alone. Free but alone. Otaka and Dana… wouldn’t be able to make more memories with her. She was all that was left of them. They were all that was left of her. Rina was keeping them together in the only way she knew how, sacrificing herself in the process. 

Aria closed her eyes and cried herself to sleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There now exists a CHRONOLOGICAL CYCLE LIST with LINKS! It's the 3rd chapter in ETERNAL CYCLE: MINDSCAPE which is the 20th fic in this series.


	2. The Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coby meets Aria. They meet Luffy. Coby is confused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Generic One Piece OC introductory beginning... Welp. I hope it's at least a little different than the norm.

Coby stared at the girl sleeping in a tree with bandages wrapped around her arms and legs. She was folded over. As if she had fallen through the branches to land on that fairly thick one. But she was clearly sleeping since the soft huffs of breath were slow and deep. 

…It looked awkwardly painful. And he might have been freaking out. 

One thing was for sure. He  _ was not _ going to inform Alvida-sama about this. N- Not even if asked… Hopefully. He was kind of pathetic that way. 

B- But he’d at least better make sure she was okay. And warn her to get away from here since there were pirates. Those bandages didn’t promise anything good and they  _ did _ have some red seeping through. Taking a deep breath Coby spoke up. In a voice barely above a whisper. 

“A- Ano…” 

The girl slept on, not caring that it was midday or that she was hurt while draped over a tree branch. Her long wavy hair was a light brown that looked almost golden in the sunlight, swaying lazily in the wind. She was still. Coby scrunched up his face in determination before walking over and carefully tugging at some of the strands. 

He yelped when a hand shot out to grab his and the girl twisted her head to look at him blearily. She had startlingly green eyes. 

“...Huh? Who’re you?”, she mumbled sleepily even as the hand gripping his grew slack and fell. 

Manners kicked in over fear as he bowed politely, “Ah! My name is Coby. Nice to meet you, miss…?” 

She looked at him for a second before yawning and dropping limp again. He sweatdropped. Rude. Except she muttered something. 

“Err, I didn’t catch that?”, he dared to ask. 

“Aria”, she said slightly more clearly, “Can I sleep now?” 

“Eh!? But-! But you can’t be comfortable up there!”, Coby protested weakly. 

She twisted her head a little to look at him, “‘M not. Can’t get down. Hurts” 

Oh. Well. That made sense. But it raised another question. Like, why was she there in the first place. But wait! She was in pain! He should help her. 

“I- I could help you?”, he offered. 

After a moment of staring Aria agreed with a small nod. It looked weird upside down. Coby smiled, relieved. 

This was the first time in two years that helping someone felt good and  _ right _ . 

xXXx

Turned out that Aria had fought a pirate group all by herself right after besting a sea king. Though she had been wounded before that too. Apparently it was a  _ training accident _ . Coby kind of feared what kind of ‘training’ she had inflicted upon herself if bleeding arms were the result. Though the worse cuts there were from the sea king’s teeth and a pirate grazed her calf with a bullet. The other leg had apparently had to deflect a whip. 

He was kinda sceptical about the whole story but wasn’t brave enough to contradict. 

As for how she ended up  _ in a tree _ … Well. Coby was pretty sure she just didn’t want to tell him. Not that he blamed her. He was just a wimpy, unwilling cabin boy on a pirate ship. Still, she  _ should _ be able to come up with a better lie than _ ‘ _ I flew and fell’. 

“That should do”, Coby proclaimed, proud at his work as he studied the fresh bandages. 

Aria flexed her fingers and gave him a small smile, “Thanks. You’re great” 

The pink haired boy promptly blushed from the praise. He was positively  _ glowing _ . Of course, his little fantasy was cut short with a call from Alvida-sama. His… captain. Aria was frowning and Coby quickly assured her  _ again _ that no, she shouldn’t beat them up. He was fine… Or at least used to it. The only argument that seemed to  _ work _ was that she shouldn’t aggravate her injuries. 

Truthfully he just didn’t want to see his new and first friend die. He had yet to see  _ anyone _ stronger than Alvida-sama. 

He'd been hiding Aria for four days now and her injuries seemed to be healing at a _phenomenal_ rate (the worst injuries should’ve taken _a_ _week and a half_ to heal completely). And… well. They seemed to be healing one at a time per night which was downright _weird_. She said the cuts on her arms would heal tonight. They were the last ones. 

Though she said it like  _ she  _ would heal them that night. Not just  _ wait  _ until it happened. He… wasn't sure he doubted that quite as much as before. 

Aria made him doubt a lot of stuff. Like his own cowardliness. But she hadn't managed to rid him of it… 

Little did he know what would happen that day. 

In the form of a heavy barrel. 

xXXx

"-AAAAAAAAH!" 

Aria looked up from her training, eyes widening in surprise, before she slammed her bare foot down. This prompted the very earth to rise and catch the barrel hurtling towards her. The curved earth made it roll down the other way before she swung her hand forward in a palm stab and a suddenly-there-wall stopped it. 

She winced at the loud  _ crack _ sound it produced and rushed over to whoever was  _ in _ the barrel. A tug on her senses told her this was who she'd been waiting for. Her heartbeat sped up. 

…Hopefully he was nice. 

"Hey", she greeted the dizzy face sticking out, a straw hat on his head and dark brown eyes slightly glazed over, "You okay?" 

He shook his head rapidly to clear it before grinning widely, "I'm fine! Just surprised, is all. I’m Luffy! What’s this place?" 

The teenage girl's lips twitched upwards and she giggled before helping the straw hat boy out. Just as Coby ran into the clearing. And promptly adopted a poleaxed look. 

" _ Eeeh!? _ Aria! Where did those  _ walls of earth  _ come from!?" 

She hummed slightly, dusting the stranger's red vest from the dirt that had fallen on it. 

"I made them" 

"You _MADE_ _them!?_ ", he asked in shock, "I left half an hour ago! There's not enough time to-" 

Coby promptly shut up in favor of letting his jaw drop to the ground as said ground lurched and another wall rose up. With a single stomp. 

Luffy's eyes were  _ sparkling, _ "Whoaa! SOOO COOL!!" 

Aria blushed at the proclamation but smiled happily. She was glad  _ someone _ thought so. 

“JOIN MY CREW!!”,  _ that _ , however, left her flat footed and blinking rapidly. 

She tilted her head in confusion, “Crew?” 

Their conversation was derailed once Coby got his wits back. 

“Wha- Wha- Wha- Aria, _ HOW!? _ ” 

She considered something but then just shrugged, “Born with it” 

Of course that was the point where Luffy turned his attention somewhere else, “Eh? Who’s the pinky head?” 

Coby’s head bowed with a cloud of depression hovering over him. Aria sighed. Heavily. This was going to be a long afternoon. 

xXXx

After explaining where and who they were, Aria was left to the sidelines as she watched her friend and the new boy about their age interact. Luffy was really something. With just a few words he had shifted Coby’s view of his fears upside down and proceeded to lift his spirits like her subtle convincing never could. Even as he insulted the boy every few sentences. 

Coby had offered his hard built boat to him! And Luffy just told him bluntly to escape the Alvida Pirates. 

To be honest, he inspired her too. Someone so set on his dream. To be the King of the Pirates. It felt like a fact, like the universe itself was backing his words. It sent pleasant shivers down her spine. 

‘Join my crew’, huh. Well. She’d consider it. A pirate. That… sounded like the perfect way to be free since they… Rina's feelings would stop her if it was bad… And a crew… A crew sounded nice. She wanted that. Really wanted it. Also, Luffy would without a doubt be a great friend and captain. 

She wanted another friend. 

Her heart swelled in happiness as Coby declared his dream of becoming a marine to the world at large. Luffy got to him. 

Unfortunately, the world at large included Alvida with a swinging iron mace. Aria reacted and quickly threw the pink haired 16-year-old (he looked younger) out of the way with earthbending and shoved him behind her. It was safer there. She was a pretty good fighter after all. 

"Betraying me to your bounty hunter friends, Coby? You're going to regret that  _ dearly _ . Even hiring Roronoa Zoro himself wouldn’t have been enough to catch me!", the very fat captain of Alvida Pirates declared with way too much confidence. 

…They weren't even bounty hunters. And why did the name Zoro sound so familiar? Whatever. Wow, she'd been  _ itching _ to stomp the woman down. Right now seemed like the perfect time. 

"Hey, who's this ugly fatso?" 

And Luffy ruined it by making her laugh. The pirates' dropped jaws were very entertaining too. After that things went down fast with Coby scrounging up his remaining courage and shouting insults at Alvida, her swinging that iron club of hers, and Aria blocking it with an earth spike. Luffy did the honors with a  _ stretching arm _ and a  _ literally _ flying punch. 

Which he'd aptly named Gum Gum Pistol. Apparently he ate a Devil Fruit that made his whole body rubber. So Aria wouldn't have had to block the mace going for his head. You learn something new every day, it seems. 

But. With that, she'd come to a decision. 

"Luffy?", she asked once the boy had wrangled a boat out of the pirate crew with the sheer intimidation factor of ‘defeated your leader’. 

"Hm?", brown eyes blinked her way with a questioning look. 

"Why do you want me to join?" 

The grin he gave her was blinding in its brightness. 

"You're kind and funny and have awesome mystery earth powers! Why wouldn't I want you?" 

Aria knew her face was red like a cherry. Not many people had  _ genuinely _ complimented her. She could count them on one hand and have fingers left over. The girl wasn't quite sure where this would go but she  _ knew _ it was a good idea. So she smiled back, small and sweet. 

"Okay. I'll join. But-", Luffy and Coby cut her off with a loud cheer and an exclamation of disbelief. 

She sighed a little but felt warm. It… wasn't that big a deal right now and she could probably handle it herself. And she had a captain now! One that was going to become the Pirate King and the one who could help with achieving  _ her _ dream. She was sure of that. Though she might have cheated a little with the way she got the answer. 

Well, maybe it wasn’t cheating if the universe was  _ screaming _ it in her face. 

Anyway. After cheering and Luffy  _ inhaling _ way too much food from the pirates’ storage they were off in their new stolen little boat. An update from Coby’s extremely beginner level and now crushed rowing boat, the one Luffy had thought a coffin. 

“…Aria? How come you can take everything Luffy does at face value?”, the pink haired teen asked at some point, brow twitching when the rubber man stretched his arms ahead and ‘rocketed’ his way to their new boat. No regard for physics or ‘reality’. 

The girl blinked, not having thought about it much. Yeah, she understood having a rubber body wasn’t  _ normal _ and that asking someone you just met to join your crew and that someone  _ agreeing _ was odd… But she’d gone way past odd after the spirit world and being tossed across dimensions with her very  _ self _ changed, combined into a single entity with others… Yeah. She just assumed this was the universe’s new normal. 

And with how things had been going she had the feeling she wasn’t exactly  _ wrong _ . 

“Eh. Who am I to say what’s impossible and what’s not?”, she finally decided. “That’s the universe’s job” 

If Coby’s shocked-turned-bemused look was any indication, he hadn’t thought of it that way. 

“Guys, c’mon! Aria, we gotta go check out that Roronoa guy!”, her captain shouted from the boat, but then a hand flew to her and stole something, “OW! Hot-hothothot!”

She stared dumbly. He’d grabbed a  _ very _ hot sausage from her stick and was eating it anyway. It looked painful. There was a moment of quiet as Coby stared, uncomprehending, and Aria looked on blankly. Then she giggled, then laughed and  _ oh _ how she hadn’t laughed so much in  _ ever. _ Luffy was a miracle guy and she made the right decision. 

“Right away, Cap!”, she shouted happily after her laughter calmed, though the mirth lingered in her voice. 


	3. The Prisoner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They go and see Zoro to decide if he'd join their crew.

Shell Town was… in bad shape. 

Oh, you wouldn’t notice from the look of it. Outwards things looked fine. But no. It was the feeling. 

Fear. 

Most of the place had a strong undercurrent of fear coursing through it. Aria didn’t like it. Not one bit. So she stuck to Luffy's side like glue. His sunny presence was like a protective sphere around them. 

It had taken them a day to reach the island. So now it was morning and she was fully healed. But… an early morning. Which meant no earthbending for her yet. It was a bit odd how her bending had a  _ timetable _ now. But she was used to that.  _ And _ working on getting rid of it. 

Somehow the fear seemed concentrated on the Marine Base. Which had her frowning. That was so not good. She didn't really want Coby in there. 

Anyway, after a meal (which they bought with Alvida's money) she got confirmation that the Marine Base was up to no good. Or at least it's leader was. Now she just had to convince  _ Coby _ of the fact. Not an easy feat. 

"Luffy", she got her captain's attention, "I'm… going to gather some intel, so… meet you at the base?" 

He tilted his head in confusion, "Intel? Can you eat it?" 

Coby face faulted and started going through exasperated explanations as Aria burst out into laughter. She needed that. After all, she'd be going back to feeling that fear around her. Luffy hit his fist to his palm as a sign of understanding and proclaimed intel to be secret secrets before giving her the okay with a grin. 

"Okay! Call for me if you need help!", he told her before sauntering towards the base with Coby. 

Aria smiled after them and turned around to concentrate on the air around her. She started walking, smiling and admiring the views… and watching people. The nervous, the downtrodden, the forcefully happy… Some snippets of conversation drifted to her ears from everywhere. Mostly just normal jazz and everyday stuff, some deep conversations she quickly steered clear of in a semblance of privacy, and then- 

“- _ can’t take much more! _ ”, someone was saying. 

“ _ Shh! What if they hear you? _ ”, another man shushed him. 

“ _ Axe Hand Morgan isn’t here, and neither is his idiot son! _ ” 

“ _ Eran! Shut it! _ ”

“ _ Someone has to say it! Roronoa Zoro needs help. It’s been  _ nine days _ and I doubt they’re feeding him at all. He saved Rika! _ ” 

“ _ I  _ know _ but we can’t really  _ do _ anything _ .  _ Look at us! Morgan would execute us without blinking!” _

The other guy grumbled and something hit a… table maybe? It was a bar two blocks away and Aria had to filter quite a bit of noise to focus on that conversation. Still, it was useful information. Rika, huh. Wait, there was someone calling for a Rika somewhere. 

“ _ Rika! I mean it! Don’t go to the execution site again! _ ” 

There were little footfalls and Aria’s eyes widened as a girl around eight or maybe ten ran out the door with rice balls in her hands. She didn’t reply to who was most likely her mother and there was a guilty grimace on her face before she brightened. The teenager looked to the door where the girl’s mother was looking after her daughter, fear etched on her face and spirit. 

Aria sighed and started running after the little girl, cutting her supercharged hearing off. She was going to go there anyway, so why not? Someone clearly needed to look out for her. Luffy probably would if he saw her but he was pretty oblivious too. And there wasn’t a guarantee that he saw her anyway. 

Ugh, curse her bleeding heart. She was a pirate now to boot. Not that she really wanted to be anything else right now, except maybe an anonymous person. Though then she couldn’t fight and she’d found out she rather liked fighting. The rush was something amazing. Pirates had much of that, as did marines probably. But she definitely did  _ not _ want to be a marine. 

Rika ran straight to a fence and wrapped her rice balls up before taking a ladder and hefting it next to… oh. Luffy and Coby. Aria wandered over as the little girl climbed over the fence. She sweatdropped at Coby’s panicking and pleading that Luffy do something. She herself could feel that her captain would be ready if something happened. 

Still, two pairs of eyes were better than one. So she jumped to land on the fence with some help from the wind and looked to what must’ve been the execution area. There was a man with a bandana and sharp shadowed eyes tied up to a cross. Aria crouched, glad that she had her stretchy dark green cargo pants and not the stupid formal dresses and robes she used to wear. 

“So he’s Zoro?”, she whispered and watched closely as Rika rushed up to him. 

“A- Aria!”, Coby yelped quietly, “When did you get here?” 

She shrugged with a smile, “Just now. Luffy, Zoro apparently saved that girl over there and got caught because of it” 

Her captain hummed in acknowledgement but continued watching the exchange between their maybe-new-crewmate and Rika. Coby just spluttered at the new and sudden information. It probably didn’t fit with what he’d heard of Zoro. Not that he’d have heard anything  _ good _ from Alvida’s crew about the Pirate Hunter. 

A swordsman without compare that took down the highest of bounties in East Blue. Not that they were very high compared to the ones on other Blues or the Grand Line. 

Someone opened the gates and Aria’s eyes snapped to them. A yellow bowl cut with a disdainful expression. Sauntering like he owned the place. Arrogance  _ oozed _ off of him. 

“…Lieutenant ‘Axe Hand’ Morgan was said to have an idiot son. That’s probably him”, she told her friends in a murmur. 

Then her eye twitched as the teenager just  _ grabbed _ one of Rika’s handmade rice balls and proceeded to insult the cooking that  _ wasn’t meant for him _ . Then again, it was a restricted area. Like she cared. Little girls, or any kid for that matter, shouldn’t be treated like that. Dana always thought so. Aria trusted her surrogate mother’s judgement. And Rina's feelings. 

She  _ so _ wanted to intervene when the other rice ball was stomped to the ground too. But Rika’s life wasn’t in danger yet and she didn’t want to expose herself to these marines. Not yet, not over this. Gritting her teeth she hopped down from the wall and concentrated on listening if she needed to jump over in a force of wind and speed. 

“You HEARD me! Toss her over or I’ll tell  _ Daddy! _ ”, the son raged. 

Aria’s _whole_ _body_ twitched as she heard the marine utter a quiet apology to Rika who was sniffling slightly. Both of them were scared and distraught, one overwhelmed with guilt. Empathy was a handy thing sometimes, other times a curse. 

“I’ll catch her”, she ground out to Luffy (who was readying to do just that) and Coby (who was panicking again). 

Luffy had just enough time to nod before they threw her. In a flash Rika was flying through the air and Aria twisted her hands around in a fast circle, creating a whirlwind to slow her down before gently catching the falling girl and smiling. 

“Gotcha”, she said quietly, "You're okay" 

Coby’s jaw had dropped again and Luffy’s eyes were sparkling. 

“Whoaa! That was awesome, Aria!”, her captain enthused. 

“You control earth  _ and _ wind…!”, her pink haired friend breathed in shock. 

She just hummed, attention on the conversation behind the wall. Apparently the idiot son had made a promise to release Zoro after a month if he managed to survive. She pursed her lips. Her empathy could pick up something mocking in that. She wasn’t close enough to get a better feel on him though. And besides, she couldn’t feel anyone’s  _ full _ emotional landscape, just the  _ prominent _ ones or the underlying current of a strong emotion. 

At times people weren’t really feeling anything in particular. 

“You guys heard that, right?”, she asked her friends, holding Rika closer, “The promise?” 

“Yeah”, Luffy told her, sparkles gone and face neutral as he looked at the wall. 

Aria sighed, putting her apprehension away before letting Rika down. The girl with two pigtails looked up at her with sad eyes. She tried to smile a little though. 

“Thanks for saving me, nee-san” 

“No problem”, the sixteen-year-old said easily. 

Luffy hopped up and over the fence, determined to do…  _ something _ . Whatever it was she was pretty sure she wanted to be there for it. 

“Coby, please look after Rika”, and she pat the girl’s head twice before leaving her to Coby’s capable hands. 

She ignored the surprise of both and landed on the other side to walk over to Luffy, his bouncy excitement recognizable and welcome. He was talking to Zoro. And telling him how it was okay to be a pirate. The girl smiled as she stopped next to her captain. She was about ten centimeters shorter at the moment but that was fine. She liked being short. 

“You decided yet?”, she asked him. 

He tilted his head to the side before grinning, “Nah. Not yet” 

She hummed happily. He sounded like he was close to it. And she had the feeling the answer was yes. Her gaze drifted to Zoro who was watching them silently before she looked to the completely muddy and destroyed rice ball. Her smile faded and she walked over to pick it up. It was more dirt than rice now, even if it stuck together. 

“…Hey, could you give it to me?”, the swordsman suddenly asked her. 

“Eh? It’s more dirt than rice now”, Luffy stated, unconsciously echoing her thoughts. She couldn't decide if that was creepy or cool. 

Aria looked to Zoro, pleasantly surprised, before smiling with a small nod, “Just let me clean it up a bit” 

She heard Luffy say something about her being awesome and blushed before focusing. 

Taking a water canteen from her belt she poured it with the utmost concentration, sweat building at her brow and skin and hair darkening just a fraction. She got about half of the dirt off with careful water manipulation that took a  _ lot _ of focus. There was about half of the water left in her canteen. 

She walked over to Zoro and let the guy eat the dirty, now also soggy, rice. Luffy and him had conversed more during the time she spent cleaning it, something about dreams and how the swordsman would never join them and didn’t need help. Half of it hadn’t registered since concentrating on waterbending during the day was  _ hard _ right now. 

About as hard as watching someone chewing and swallowing rice that was _stomped_ to the _ground_. Aria winced at the swordsman’s pained cough before holding out her canteen to him. 

“Here”, she told him and was happy he drank without question. 

Luffy’s hand landed on her head as she put the empty canteen back. She blinked up at him to see him looking at Zoro with a wide grin. The physical touch was… strange and oddly gentle. Calming. She liked it. 

“Aria’s my first mate! Ain’t she cool?”, he poked her pink cheek. 

_ Genuine compliments, why can't I deal with you? _ , she lamented. 

A rubber guy, that's fine. All good. Devil Fruits are real. Great. Normal. Nothing to be alarmed about. Compliments aimed at her here and  _ meant?  _ Unheard of. Until now. 

The girl huffed at her thoughts but smiled and turned to Zoro, “Luffy’s pretty amazing too. If a bit dumb sometimes” 

She elbowed her captain’s side. It felt funnily bouncy. 

“Shishishishi!”, Luffy just laughed what the girl was starting to recognize as his signature laugh. 

To Aria’s delight she could sense amusement from the swordsman. He looked between them with a cocked eyebrow before huffing slightly, turning more serious. 

“That little girl… Tell her it was delicious”

Luffy and her were momentarily surprised before smiling. They would. And it looked more and more likely that Zoro would be their new crewmate. 


	4. The Marines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Recruiting Zoro.

Aria looked after Helmeppo's (the odd name of the idiot son) retreating back between two marines with a scowl. She didn't like those kinds of people. Arrogant who thought they could treat people 'lower' than them however they wanted. 

She was glad Luffy punched him. 

Otherwise no one would make it known to him that the things he did had  _ consequences _ . Like the promise he never intended to keep. ‘ _ One month _ ’, he says, ‘ _ executed in three days _ ’, he meant. Pah! Just thinking it made her angry! 

"I've decided", Luffy stated, "Zoro will be our crewmate" 

Aria nodded firmly, "Good. I like him" 

And it was true. She liked the feel of his stubbornness and steadfast loyalty to his own set duties. There was just the problem of actually  _ getting _ him to join. 

…Eh. Luffy could handle it. 

She had a feeling that if she hadn't just accepted his invitation she'd still have ended up with him, one way or another. Zoro would be the same. 

xXXx

He  _ blackmailed him _ . Luffy just went and decided the swordsman was going to join them. Then proceeded to get leverage after he said no. By getting the swordsman’s katana from the marine base. Aria stared after her captain with incredulous amusement. 

“Well. That’s Luffy for you. Stubborn to a fault”, she said to their new crewmate, smiling. 

“He’s blackmailing me! I’m not gonna become a pirate no matter what he says!”, Zoro protested icily. 

The girl hummed in silent acknowledgement, not saying that she severely doubted that. Then started lazily running after him. He  _ was _ her captain after all. Better make sure he didn’t make  _ that _ big a mess. Or then add to the mayhem if it amused her. 

A conversation  _ far _ away caught her attention and she immediately enhanced her hearing with wind currents again. This time it was a thousand times harder since afternoon had rolled around again. 

“ _ Have you executed her? _ ” 

“ _ What!? I can’t! She’s just a little girl! _ ” 

Her blood ran cold as she listened further, deducing the place to be the ugly marine base roof. She ran forward as fast as she could and latched on to Luffy’s shoulders with fear in her heart. There wasn't time to feel odd about it but she felt weirded out by the physical touch anyway. He let out a noise of confusion. 

“The roof! Go to the roof!”, she demanded frantically. 

She was so lucky her captain didn’t question it. Just shot his hand up to grab  _ something _ up there. Aria prayed he was fast enough. 

“Gomu Gomu no…  _ Rocket! _ ” 

The girl felt her stomach flip as they flew through the air way faster than she was used to. They flew too far and Luffy acknowledged that too, grabbing a head made out of… rock?... to stop their flight. It was a  _ statue _ of an axe handed man. She noticed the model of it also there, rising said axe towards a defenceless and  _ saluting _ marine. 

Something in her flared and she thanked the fact it was already afternoon. 

Letting go of Luffy she let out a war cry, smashing to the rock statue and shattering it to pieces. One particularly attention grabbing chunk remained floating with her command and she punched forward. The rock flew and hit the swinging axe off course and saving someone from a nasty death. She barely recognized that she’d bended the statue’s head at its owner. 

“ _ Don’t _ go swinging at men who won't kill _ innocent little girls  _ on your say so!”, she panted out in barely concealed rage. 

Everyone was gaping at her and her captain in shock. Axe Hand Morgan, the Lieutenant who was going to kill his  _ underling _ , did so for a single second before erupting in a furious scowl and enraged yell. 

“CAPTURE THEM! I WILL  _ KILL _ THEM FOR THIS!! YOU WILL  _ DIE!! _ ” 

There were scattered and fearful ‘yes sir’s’ as half the force readied, though Aria noted it was slower than it could have been. She noticed that Helmeppo was on the roof too, quaking in fear and staring straight at her. Probably because of the rubble she’d just made of a giant statue with a downwards kick and a jump. 

Luffy wrinkled his nose at the shout and scowled right back, “Don’t wanna! Where’s Zoro’s sword?” 

Aria had calmed down enough to think again and pointed to the idiot son. 

“He might know”, she told her captain. 

“Oh. Right!”, and he was off, dragging Helmeppo with his fearful protests and calls for help downstairs with him. 

“I’ll catch up in a bit!” 

“Okay!”, came his muffled reply. 

And with that, Aria turned to the advancing marines and Morgan who looked more like an angry bull than the highest ranking officer. She scowled again and maturely stuck her tongue out. 

“You’re a disgusting leader”, the girl told the Lieutenant and stomped the ground to lift some more statue pieces, “And I won’t stand for it” 

She swung her arms down in two sideways lines, stance grounded, and the sudden crash in front of their vulnerable feet had the soldiers stopping in their tracks. Aria slid her foot on the roof in a swift and precise arc and turned her ankle sharply to the side, the ground under the front line bucking up like a speedy mole had just run through it. 

Everything trembled and it shook Aria to some of the reality in her situation. This was a  _ rooftop _ so no earth walls. There were  _ guns _ aimed at her and she couldn’t block all of them or deflect. Her mouth twisted into a grimace. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to challenge Morgan right here and now. 

She should catch up to Luffy too, like she had said she would. 

With that she decided her next course of action. Burying her hands to the roof she swung outwards to open a hole and dropped down. She clapped her hands over her head and was gratified to hear said hole slam shut. Aria quickly ran to the door and hesitated on destroying the stairs. On the other hand, Morgan couldn’t come after them. 

On the other, the marines couldn’t escape from Morgan. 

She left the stairs intact with a frustrated growl and started listening for her captain. Not being able to focus so much on the run Aria hoped he made some noise. Or that she could pick up the  _ place _ of his emotions better than ‘this direction, pretty far away’. Unfortunately it took a while to find him. And when she did he was kicking a door labeled ‘My Room’ open, a scared-out-of-his-mind Helmeppo hanging from his grip. 

“Hi, Luffy”, she greeted and stepped into the room behind him, wondering why the place looked so… girly. 

Her captain grinned at her happily, “Aria! Ne, do you know which katana is Zoro’s?”, he pointed to the three swords leaning against a wall. 

The girl frowned as a memory filtered through. Something about a three sword style. 

“Probably all of them”, she said contemplatively, not certain but sure she wasn’t completely wrong either. 

They had some spiritual power in them. Especially the white one. And that one wanted back to its owner. Who could be seen out of the window. The girl frowned. It felt… worried? She wandered over to the window and stiffened. 

“ _ Luffy! _ ”, she called out, frightened, “They’re shooting at Coby and Zoro!” 

“Eh!?”

Immediately after she said so she took a breath and pushed her hands out in front of her, stance low and wide. Sharp. The wall exploded outwards. Taking a running leap her stomach  _ dropped _ at how far away the ground was. She pushed her leg back, focusing on the day, the sun, and  _ flames _ before a jet of fire propelled her forward, over the heads of the marines and towards the execution grounds. It was  _ hard _ . 

She wasn’t going to make it. 

Luffy shot past her like a bullet  _ in front of the bullets _ . Her breath caught. The fire stuttered and she fell. The bullets bounced off. Aria focused on the earth, letting it swallow her like water, rising in a wave around her. It took most of the impact away. Her legs still screamed in protest. Not  _ quite _ mastered then. 

Sharp and wide movements with her hands had the mangled earth smoothing down around her. She was trembling a little with adrenaline. 

"I told you! I'm strong!", her captain laughed joyously. 

"Wh- Who are you?", Zoro asked shakily. 

Luffy turned to look at him, smile still on his face, "I'm Monkey D. Luffy. The man who'll become the King of the Pirates!" 

There was fact behind his statement, and she once again felt the universe backing him. Aria shakily walked to them from behind Zoro and gave Luffy a reproachful look.

"You didn't tell me bullets can't hurt you" 

"Shishishi, my bad!", he didn't sound sorry at all. Actually, he was just glad that everyone was okay if the happiness he radiated was any indication. 

And Aria, the understanding person she was, couldn't fault him for it. She felt it too. But most of her attention was still on the situation. 

"What-  _ What are they? _ ", someone in the marine lines asked fearfully. 

Luffy ignored them, or didn't hear them, and brandished the swords towards Zoro, "They're all yours, right? Resisting the marines here will make you a criminal. Or do you want to die here?" 

Zoro smirked, saying, “Son of a devil”, and it sounded like a compliment. 

Her captain's blackmail worked. For some reason. Aria sneaked a glance at Coby who looked  _ very _ relieved. He must have talked good things about them. She smiled. 

"Too late to back out", the girl said to their newest crewmate and brandished a flame on her palm to burn the ropes, "Welcome to the crew" 

Zoro and Coby were staring at the fire in shock even as the ropes on the tied up man's left arm fell. Of course, that was the point where the marines got themselves together. 

"GET THEM! They must be devil fruit users! If bullets don't work use blades! Capture the girl so I can kill her  _ myself! _ ", Morgan roared. 

It looked like they  _ really _ didn't want to. Aria couldn't blame them. There was a rubber man and a bender amongst their group, along with a swordsman many called a demon. And wow. She must have danced over  _ many _ nerves if he wanted her for himself. 

She shuddered at the thought of being at the mercy of someone like that. Ever. 

Luffy was already standing in front of her, sans katanas. Zoro had cut himself free and was standing at Coby's side with them in hand and… one in his mouth? Cool. 

The marines charged. Luffy lifted one foot. 

Aria took only a moment to understand what he was doing and ducked out of the way. 

"Gomu Gomu no Whip!", he belted out with a grin stuck on his face. 

Most of them were now lying on the ground or had gotten swept out of the way. Aria's feet still smarted from the fall but she ignored it in favor of bending an earth cage without a roof for some unlucky group of marines. Zoro himself had easily disarmed most of the ones who had brandished swords at any of them. He was  _ fast _ . 

Even dehydrated, starving, and injured. 

Aria smiled and made plans to up her own training. If she was going to be the crewmate of the Pirate King she had to get much stronger than this. The best bender her own world had ever seen and this one would ever know. 

And she'd better get her Avatar like abilities fully under control. 

“Lieutenant, we can’t win”, someone said from the ground, every marine defeated in a single blow from one of the three. None were dead. 

“These guys are too strong” 

There was a pause and Aria flinched. The sheer  _ fury _ radiating from Morgan was scorching. And then he ordered the speakers to kill themselves. She felt something  _ snap _ . Next thing she knew was Luffy launching himself at the marine lieutenant and herself running after him, ready to provide support with earth or fire. 

One swing of the axe and Luffy jumped over. Aircurrents  _ sliced _ and she felt herself plant a wall to stop it from cutting her in half, even as she ducked low enough to dodge if needed. It wasn’t needed. The earth here was packed and strong. Not as sturdy as rock but strong. 

She split the wall into usable rocks just in time to see Luffy’s feet kick Morgan’s chin up and the muscular man flew off the ground. 

The marines no longer had their guns to their heads. Her captain was kicking butt. She almost relaxed. Almost. A yell rang across the clearing. 

“WAIT!”, it shouted. Helmeppo. 

Using  _ Coby _ as a hostage. Aria’s heart skipped a beat and she shifted her foot in a sharp movement, sending another line of earth past Zoro and a pillar knocking the blond idiot off balance with a shriek. She looked to the swordsman and deemed him in need of rest and food more than battle. They could handle this without him. 

“Can you look after them for a bit?”, she asked as she gestured to Coby, waiting for him to nod slightly, before turning back to Luffy defeating Morgan easily. The man was now totally unconscious. 

She rushed to his side and looked at the remaining marines warily. 

“You still wanna fight?”, she asked. 

Then smiled when they just started cheering at the freedom from under Morgan’s tyranny. All was well. Or  _ would be _ well. Coby was a little shaken. Zoro needed some medical attention. 

Oh, and he would apparently gut them if they got in the way of his dream. 

Not that there was much chance of  _ that _ happening. 

It was a good day. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soo, yay, I guess? Another chapter. You're welcome.


	5. The Clown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This. This is where happenings wildly differ from canon. Be warned.

“So, Luffy is a rubber man… but what are  _ you? _ ”, Zoro asked after they ate at Rika’s and set sail. The little girl’s mother was a good cook. 

Coby stayed behind to become a marine. Shell Town had seen them go with marines saluting them, led by the pink haired boy. Morgan was a prisoner now. 

Aria hummed, munching on a chocolate chip cookie. It was good. She wondered about that. Was she a mutated bender? That was probably some kind of an explanation. But it sounded lame. And like she was some kind of freak of nature, which she didn’t want to be. Not anymore. So she smiled and came up with a term. 

“Element bender”, she told him simply, “I was born with my powers” 

Well. Most of them. Kinda all of them. It was complicated. 

Anyway. They were heading for the Grand Line now. But not  _ yet _ yet because Aria pointed out they would need more than a little boat and just the three of them. And a better navigator. She herself was moderate at best. 

xXXx

Luffy… was an idiot. 

They’d only been sailing for two days and he’d eaten all their food. And tried to catch a flying bird that caught  _ him _ instead. Aria gritted her teeth and wished she could waterbend better at daytime. But… it was morning. At least she could airbend. Which propelled them  _ way _ fast combined with Zoro’s rowing. 

_ Hold on, Luffy. We’ll catch up soon so _ please _ don’t do something stupid. _

Which was wishful thinking. She knew that. It didn’t stop her from thinking it. 

Oh. There were people stranded in the water. They were calling for help and the two were going straight at them. Zoro shouted something about not having time to stop, which was true, and she was half concentrating on the wind current behind them and half looking at the dot in the sky that was the bird. They couldn’t afford to lose it and Luffy in the process. Which meant the men climbed on board while the boat was still in full motion.

“Heh. Your climbing skills aren’t half bad”, Zoro complimented and she agreed, though nervously now that she  _ felt _ something other than desperation and- 

Unfortunately, the newcomers had nefarious purposes in mind. They were pirates that took advantage of her distraction to put a knife at her throat. She squawked in indignation and tried to lean away and  _ torch _ them but someone twisted her arms against her back. Her eyes were wide with alarm. These guys were without a doubt physically stronger than her. She knew her training was more focused on controlling her powers and keeping herself  _ together _ . Not muscles. 

“Stop the boat! This is Buggy’s territory!”

Aria looked to Zoro and found her balance again in the thunderous glare he was leveling the self proclaimed Buggy Pirates. 

“ _ What? _ ”, he almost growled. 

The fight that occurred next shouldn’t even be called a fight. In fact, Aria kept an eye on the bird for all of it. She just created some fire again to keep them at bay and Zoro soon had them row the boat. She didn’t pay attention to  _ that _ , though. The explosion in the sky got her  _ full  _ and kinda horrified attention. 

“Zoro, the bird got shot at and Luffy fell!”

“EEH!?”

xXXx

They landed ashore pretty quick after that while the Buggy Pirates told them about an orange haired girl that tricked them. She sounded like an amazing navigator but the two new pirates didn’t have time to worry about that. Not now. Their captain had  _ fallen from the sky _ after being  _ shot at _ and they had to find him. He was lucky he fell into the town and not the sea! 

Aria was surprised by how  _ empty _ everything felt. There were no people hanging about. No emotions to read, except those very far away. Her senses didn't even reach that far, not well and only for a general air. It was… malicious. Probably Buggy’s crew then. 

The next time they found Luffy he was tied up and sitting inside a cage. Aria felt like sighing even as she felt her powers slowly shifting from fire and wind to fire and earth again. The change would be even more pronounced in an hour or so. She and Zoro hid on a nearby rooftop and tried to assess the situation. 

Buggy Pirate’s were partying. She blinked again, just to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. There seemed to be an orange haired girl who was easily outdrinking everyone on board. Her mind immediately flashed to the description of the trickster who stole from the Buggy Pirates. 

Why was she  _ there _ then? To steal? 

To Aria’s slight annoyance, her brain started connecting dots and she guessed Luffy had gotten himself tricked into her plans to steal something else. Typical. Rina's feelings confirmed her thoughts. 

“Huh. Want to observe some more for the moment?”, she asked since their captain didn’t seem to be in any real danger for now. Payback for scaring her  _ yet again _ . 

“Why?”

“I wanna know what kind of a person that orange haired woman is”, and that too. 

Zoro arched an eyebrow, watching her for a moment, before sitting himself down. The girl smiled just a little and dropped beside him in a crouch. She was ready to act at a moment’s notice. Good thing too. Since just fifteen minutes later they got a cannon out and  _ shot down the row of houses they stood on _ . 

Luckily there were still others nearby and she and Zoro jumped there instead. Just before the houses  _ exploded _ . Aria stared, shocked, before turning to her crewmate with wide eyes. 

“I  _ don’t  _ want to see what that would do to Luffy”, she managed. 

From the dark look in Zoro’s eyes, he agreed. They looked up. This far down, they couldn’t really see the other rooftop. Aria bit her lip as she tried to come up with ways to get  _ both _ of them up there. Then counted herself lucky her powers had shifted to earthbending right around now. 

She kicked a not-small part of the roof up, a big slab, and beckoned Zoro to jump on. Then she ran back, took a boost from the wall behind her, and rocketed towards their makeshift aircraft. It shot upwards by her will and motion. Zoro held on admirably though he did yelp a little as the slab jerked. They got there in under a second and Aria stopped the rock with a quick thrust forward and dropped down slowly as she lowered them, elbows outward and palms down. 

Everyone was too shocked to do much more than stare. The orange haired maybe-navigator was stood by the cannon with a box of matches and… not really near the rope that would fire the weapon? So she wasn’t really going to kill someone who was as carefree and nice as Luffy. Maybe not anyone at all. 

“Hi, Captain”, Aria greeted amiably, “You still okay?” 

“Shishishi! Yup! Now get me out of here!” 

“Honestly…”, Zoro grumbled, “First you fly off with a bird and now you’re playing in some cage” 

“That’s Luffy for you-!?”, Aria cut off because the orangette had just attacked a pirate that stole the matches to blast them all off the roof. 

“Eh? You’re gonna save me after all?”, Luffy asked. 

“Don’t be stupid! I just don’t want to be a low-life murderer like you!”, she ground out, “You pirates took someone dear to me! I’ll  _ never _ become what I hate!” 

Well. That explained her character more than any observation would have. Aria smiled. It was admirable. Now, to get Luffy out of here. Maybe she could- 

“Ah! The fuse is lit!”, the captain said, alarmed. 

Aria tensed. Change of plans. 

“Cut it off!”, she ordered. Or pleaded. She wasn’t sure. 

She needn't have bothered. Zoro was already there and had cut the burning rope before defending the most-likely-navigator from the pirates who ganged up on her. He could manage easily. Aria turned to Luffy and kneeled next to the cage. It would need a key. 

_ If _ she couldn’t metalbend. She’d tried pretty often and hadn’t really succeeded. Yet. After all, it had been-  _ was _ \- Dana’s dream. 

“I’m gonna try something”, she told Luffy with furrowed eyebrows, “It… might not work but I’ll try” 

The girl closed her eyes and knocked on the metal bars. It resonated within her, revealing just a little bit of familiarity. Places where the earth was. Places where there was just metal. Like through the whole concrete slabs and  _ ugh _ that would’ve been so much easier to destroy if there  _ wasn’t  _ metal gridding in it. Aria instead focused on the bars and put her hands on them. She  _ pushed _ outward with all her strength, trying to get the bars to  _ part _ . 

She could feel it working. Just a little. After about ten seconds of trying she opened her eyes and glared at the cage. The space between the two bars had widened but not enough for anything but Luffy’s head. Maybe three centimeters. 

“Ooh! You’re so strong you can bend metal! That’s impressive, Aria!”, the rubber man grinned. 

Aria sweatdropped, “No, I’m actually pretty weak. Just learning metalbending. I can’t make it bigger, though ‘cause that’s  _ hard _ ”

“Awww. Maybe Zoro can cut it then”, he said disappointedly. 

She didn’t say so, but she kinda doubted that. These bars were too thick. And Luffy couldn’t come through this only  _ slightly _ wider exit. Wait… Rubber man. Luffy was a  _ rubber man _ . 

“Can’t you just squeeze through this?”, she asked, feeling very stupid, “You’re made of  _ rubber.  _ Rubber  _ stretches _ ” 

Luffy looked at her like she’d just given him the meaning of life. It was the look of  _ realization _ . Apparently that hadn’t crossed his mind. Granted, there wasn’t any guarantee it would work. Aria lit a flame to burn his ropes even as the pirate popped his head through, careful of his straw hat. Though this time she also tuned in on what was happening. 

Oh. Zoro had cut Captain Buggy to pieces. And everyone was laughing. Aria narrowed her eyes. That was definitely not normal behavior. She looked around for clues, the expressions, the place in general, the… body… 

Wasn’t a body at all. Its hand was missing. No blood came from the cuts.  _ Where was the hand? _

“Zoro,  _ behind you! _ ”, she barked out urgently and the swordsman twisted around to block… a floating hand with a dagger. 

Yes. She wasn’t seeing things. Oh well, she’d already decided that the world itself was the one to choose possible and impossible things. Her captain was a rubber man and she came from another dimension for crying out loud! Not that anyone knew that. 

Captain Buggy rose with a manic grin and a glint in his eye, “I ate the Bara Bara no Mi! You can cut me all you want and never get anywhere! I’m a slicable man!” 

“Chop Chop Fruit? That guy’s a freak”, Luffy commented, halfway through the bars and torso… kind of  _ flattened _ between them. Aria sweatdropped at the  _ way _ too hypocritical statement. 

The thief-navigator girl’s emotions were all over the place. She could feel shock and low-grade panic. And the curiosity and what-the-devil-are-you-people. Aria guessed it was a normal reaction to something you previously thought was impossible. Her own lines to that had been blurred beyond recognition years ago. 

Still, she looked at the other pirate captain. Clown. He was a clown. Crossbones on his forehead. Blue hair. Red and round nose. It was odd. 

“Is his nose real?”, she wondered quietly to herself. 

Not quietly enough.  _ Everyone _ froze. Buggy started twitching. Aria grimaced as she realized she'd accidentally hit a sore spot. He was  _ radiating _ rage that made her want to curl in on herself. Or step behind her crewmates and let their protective  _ confidence-friendship-safety-ours-not-alone _ feelings shield her sensitive empathy. 

"Don't… call… my nose…", he turned to her with a hair-trigger temper and a knife in hand, " _ BIG! _ " 

_ I didn't! _ , she shouted indignantly inside her mind as she stomped to the ground to get a shield from the slab they'd gotten to the roof with. 

The knife  _ dodged around it _ (of  _ course _ he shot his hand!) and took a stab at her side. Aria only had half a second to feel her stomach drop and go for a too-late dodge before she was pulled out of the way by rubbery arms. She collided with a red vest and blinked rapidly since this was the first time in  _ five years _ that she was hugged. Even though this wasn't a proper hug. It was one armed, for one. It felt… nice. Luffy was so close that she couldn't feel anyone else's emotions properly. 

Warm. Annoyed and protective. Giddy. Happy. Not alone. Mostly annoyed. At Buggy, probably, since it sure wasn't at her. He let her go to face the clown pirate. 

"Don't take cheap shots at my crew!", he yelled, "I'll kick your butt!" 

He’d gotten out then. Good. And apparently they had a fight in their hands again. She needed to polish her skills either way so this was good. That knife almost hit and was a reminder that she could still slip up even without having been injured previously. 

“I’ll take on that lion tamer, then”, she decided as she looked towards the white haired four eared guy. He felt more malicious than most of the rest, along with his lion. And prideful with a devil-may-care attitude. In a bad way. 

Zoro stepped near them as they got out of the cannon’s way and shifted his blade, “I take anyone who has a sword” 

Aria’s lip twitched upwards. That was over half of the goons and that acrobat guy. Acrobat guy who seemed… sadistic. Ugh. Actually, they all felt like they liked other people’s pain to some extent and that thought made her feel better about using more violent tactics against them. And they were terrorizing this town, no doubt. So there. 

“Shishishishi! Okay!”

“Wha- But you’re just  _ three _ people!”, the orange haired navigator protested in disbelief. 

Buggy’s crew and Buggy were staring at them with the same thoughts and a cloud of mounting anger and sadistic glee at their arrogance. 

“Four! You’re our new navigator!”, Luffy exclaimed. 

“What!?  _ No! _ Are you  _ insane!? _ ” 

“So you  _ don’t _ want to get out of here?”

“I do but-!” 

“Just stick with us then!”, Luffy cracked his knuckles with a grin. 

Buggy had had enough, “ _ DON’T TAKE US SO LIGHTLY! _ BUGGY PIRATES, RIP THEM TO PIECES!” 

“YES CAPTAIN!” 

And they had a gang fight on their hands. Only the goons had attacked. The animal tamer, swordsman guy and clown captain stayed back. Now  _ they _ were taking the smaller group lightly. Too lightly. True to his word, Zoro took out anyone who had a sword and they dropped unconscious and cut up on the roof. Aria didn’t even use bending that much. Just the martial arts involved in learning it and her speed. 

If some people got high speeding little rocks in their faces or the slabs of the roof tripped them or her punches and kicks left blisters behind, well. That was just bad luck on their part. 

It took maybe thirty seconds, maybe a minute. The pirates were an unconscious heap on the roof with bruises and maybe some broken bones. 

Only Buggy and his first and second mates were left. Their eyes were shadowed. Faces expressionless. Aria could still feel their shock and anger. Bruised pride. Rage at the crewmates that had  _ lost _ and a desire to- to  _ kill _ them. A shudder raced down her spine and her eyes hardened. These people genuinely didn’t  _ care _ about most people. Or then they only cared enough not to brutally kill their own. Innocent, guilty… it didn’t matter. 

Just a bit less so than Morgan was. Had been. Would be if they hadn’t gone by. 

Luffy would bring a hurricane of change wherever he went. 

“You… couldn’t take down measly little upstarts!?”, Buggy demanded from his fallen crew, “If you fail me like this I see no further use for you”, a few whimpers rose from them. 

Suddenly a hissing sound came from behind the three, kinda four, that had downed the opposing pirates. Everyone turned to see one limping Buggy Pirate with the fallen matchbox and the cannon pointing straight at them. He was smirking devilishly. Then his eyes widened in horror along with Buggy as he realized he was basically pointing a  _ cannon _ at his  _ captain and crew  _ too. 

Someone must have given him a concussion for this harebrained idea to come about. 

“ _ YOU IDIOOOOOT!! _ ”, Buggy screamed as everyone ran for it. 

Luffy was laughing his head off, exhilarated. Aria stomped one of her steps to get the cannon aiming  _ just _ a little bit higher, the slabs under it rising upwards. She didn’t want it to kill the downed crew. Just singe them a little. The cannonball flew and hit Buggy (why was he running  _ away _ and not to the  _ side? _ ) who got blasted away. Along with his first and second mates and the first mate’s lion. Everyone in slightly different directions. 

Nami, Zoro, Aria, and Luffy were on the side and watched them fly. And land. One through a roof, another on the main street, and the lion with its tamer somewhere on a side street. Not too far. And at least the acrobat first mate had a soft-ish landing in a water tank. He rose up spitting like an angry cat. 

“…I think they might cause a  _ lot _ of trouble if left unchecked”, Aria noted mildly. 

“Well, what’re we waiting for! I promised to beat Buggy!”, Luffy said with a wide grin. 

“Tch. That acrobat is a swordsman. These guys barely knew which way to point their weapons”, Zoro grumbled, disappointed with the small fries and eager for a better workout. 

Nami stared between them with incredulity. These guys were really  _ pirates?  _ They felt more like some adventurer group. And… she hated to say she kind of  _ liked _ them. They seemed to  _ care _ . She sighed before smirking. 

"Whatever. I'm going to get their treasure. You win or you lose, nothing to do with me", she started walking towards the door but peeked back at the group, "Though… if you  _ do _ win… sticking around you seems profitable. I  _ might _ consider collaborating again, ne?" 

With that final and, in Aria's opinion, a bit dramatic declaration the navigator-thief was gone. Nobody moved for a second. 

"…Collaborating? Again?", she wondered, side-eyeing Luffy. 

"Nami wants to go to the Grand Line to get more treasure", her captain said as if that  _ actually _ explained it. 

Well. At least she knew their navigator's name now. Even if Nami didn't know that yet. 

Anyway, they were off to beat their chosen opponents. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaand I'm leaving things at that for now. There's gonna be one chapter more and then I'm letting this lie to focus on other parts of this series.


	6. The Pet Food Shop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aria fights a lion tamer and there's a fire.

Aria rushed down the street where she could feel the… let’s say irritated king of the jungle and its master. Sometimes she understated things. By a lot. She could actually hear it-  _ him _ \- growl right then. After hastily rounding the corner she stopped dead as she saw a bruised white dog in front of a pet food shop, teeth bared and prepared to take on the lion. There was an old man lying next to the dog and holding his shoulder. 

It was bleeding, flimsy armor torn away. The pirate girl scowled. 

“You really are a sadist, aren’t you?”, she shouted angrily at the other first mate sitting on his lion. 

This had the effect of capturing his attention and drawing it away from the poor old man. And the shop. And the dog. It also made the lion growl at her, his anger skyrocketing. Well, it _ was _ technically her fault they got blasted away. 

“ _ You! _ ”, the tamer seethed, “Richie, ATTACK!” 

Honestly, Aria hadn’t expected an  _ instant _ attack. Usually powerful sadists liked to monologue for some reason. Like Buggy had. Still, she was ready. This was the  _ ground _ . She planted her feet firmly and  _ moved _ . The earth followed her command and made a racing wave that threw the lion’s charge off course. He went flying over her head. She rushed forward and turned to block the way to the old man and dog. 

“Are you guys okay?”, she asked with a short glance behind her. 

The old man was hurting and shocked. The dog felt confused. 

“I- Who- Who are you?”, the man asked. 

“Aria. Stay behind me”

It didn’t take long for Richie the lion to recover and growl at them. Mostly at her. She waited. The element bender didn’t like making the first move, even though the rush of fighting was enticing. Needless fighting and violence wasn’t good. If it hurt someone innocent. And she had someone to protect right now. 

She didn’t have to wait long. The lion rushed her with all the intentions of biting her head off. Aria let her instincts and spiritual senses guide her as she produced a blunt earth spike under it. He dodged. She made another, which glanced his left front leg. It snorted in annoyance and pain but that didn’t slow it down. 

Aria stomped. A large-ish piece of the street rose off the ground. She kicked it like a projectile with her next step and it smashed right between the lion’s eyes. That left it dazed. She didn’t wait for it to recover. 

“Richie!”, the tamer yelled worriedly as blunt spikes made impact and she heard some of his ribs creak. 

A yowl left the lion as she hit him in his stomach and he went limp. She curved spikes around the predator like a cage even as the tamer raged. Hitting her fists together, she hardened the already packed earth and made it strong like hard stone. The lion  _ might _ still be able to get out with pure strength, though. 

At that moment something red and blue flew  _ through _ the nearby building and smacked into the next one. Aria blinked at the somehow still standing house before turning to see her captain brush dirt off himself as he regained his footing. 

“Hm? Aria!”, he grinned happily as he noticed her, “Did you win already?” 

So even getting launched through a building wouldn’t hurt him much. Good to know. She pouted at the guy. 

“Almost, but you interrupted!” 

“Oh. Sorry”, his emotions said he was only a tiny bit guilty. 

Aria turned to her opponent and saw that the tamer guy had gotten out of the cage and was now trying to rouse his lion. She didn’t really want to fight anymore now that it wasn’t… fair. Or a challenge. So she frowned and thought, slowly coming to a conclusion. 

“Actually, could you just knock them out?”, she asked with a grimace. 

“NO! YOU CANNOT WIN AGA- Grk!”, and the tamer went down as the lion’s growl got cut off because two rubbery fists had smashed into their heads. 

Luffy dusted his hands off with a decisive nod. He turned to Aria with a grin but then his eyes slid past her and saw the dog and the old man. The pirate blinked owlishly. 

“Who’re they?”, he pointed. 

Up until this point the man and dog had stayed quiet and gaped at the impossible sight of the very  _ ground _ being used to defend them. And at the guy who got flung through a building. To them this must’ve looked like some weird dream. 

“Maybe one of the townspeople? The lion guy attacked them before I got here”, she said simply and then remembered the old man’s wound, whirling around and rushing over to get a look at it. 

The old man recovered a little from his shock as her gentle hands inspected the not- _ that _ -deep-but-still-deep claw marks. It would be best if she healed them. Though healing others was a little harder than healing herself. They just didn’t have the same energy flowing through their veins. And it wasn't evening yet. 

“W- What  _ are _ you?” 

“A pirate with empathy. Do you have water?” 

Wordlessly, the man shook his head. Aria sighed and pulled her own water canteen out. She concentrated as she once again poured the water on her hand. It stayed there in a small lump and she gently put it on the injuries. The water started glowing as sweat poured down her brow. The wounds knitted shut slowly but surely. 

Luffy was now crouched next to her with stars in his eyes, “Whoaa! You can heal too?” 

“Mmmh”, she got out in the midst of her concentration, hair lengthening and turning dark at the tips for a second before she got it under control. 

The second the wounds were closed with only scratches left the water burst in her hands and sprayed over everyone. Her shoulders slumped as she panted for breath and, uh oh… She was flickering again. Got to stabilize. Closing her eyes she let herself go limp as she searched her mind and focused on her mantra. Arms caught her and she could hear a surprised yelp as well as feel worry from _ three _ ways and  _ that wasn’t helping!  _ Stable. Together. Find a balance. 

_ Four are one. We are me. I am Aria. Four are one. We are me. I am Aria…  _

She woke up later, dazed and confused, to something burning and Nami hovering over her. Her leg throbbed a little bit. She winced. The girl had no idea how long she’d taken this time. Irate brown eyes filled with relief and the element bender realized the woman had shaken her awake. 

“Finally! You can control earth, right?", Nami's voice was just a bit hoarse and she coughed lightly at the end. 

Aria frowned and nodded slowly, feeling  _ mostly _ like herself again. Everything was making sense (almost) and she wasn't about to self-combust. She  _ needed _ to get that under control at some point though. 

"Great. Get us out of here! Please!" 

_ Out of where? _ , Aria thought and sat up to see fire. 

Lots and lots of fire burning the wooden building they were trapped in. Wood. Not earth. No ground in her reach. To move the ground she needed to be  _ grounded _ . At least for now. A dog,  _ the  _ dog, was howling outside and mourning. Oh. They were inside the pet food store. The door was blocked by burning wood. No windows in sight. She swallowed her panic and compassion down and tried to remember the times she'd been training this. 

"I can't get us out but I can stop the fire", she informed Nami and rose to a slightly shaky stance. 

_ Breathe _ , she reminded herself as she closed her eyes,  _ Be one with the flames. _

She opened her empathy, her spirit and will, up to the burning building and encompassed it. Eager and hot and consuming. Burning everything down. She didn't want it to burn. Aria took over. She breathed in and for an instant the flames grew higher. Then she exhaled. Let the eagerness go. Calm. Gentle. Sorrow of the dog. A firm command.  _ Not this place _ , she told it, moving slowly and calmly from stance to stance. Directing and snuffing the flames out. 

Nami gasped in shock and wonder and Aria knew it had worked. Everything had died down to simmering embers. The shop was left blackened but standing and shelves of food packages had burned to a crisp. Some of them were empty. She wondered why. But there were more pressing things in mind. 

“What  _ happened _ here?”, she asked the navigator urgently but then coughed on the lingering smoke. 

It snapped Nami out of the shock she’d been feeling. She pat the slightly taller girl’s back as she slumped down again, still coughing, and then answered. 

“That lion you beat woke up and broke that- that cage of earth. It  _ bit _ through it”, she said disbelievingly, “His owner ordered him to pull you here and stuck the place on fire after letting the lion eat. Shushu, the dog, fought them but got knocked back” 

That explained the bite mark on her left leg. 

Aria frowned and dug her memories before rasping out, “Where’s Luffy? And how did you get in here?” 

“Last I saw, your captain was fighting Buggy after he’d escaped flying knives by getting  _ shot through a building _ ”, Nami explained, putting emphasis on the impossible stuff, “I got here to see him leave you in that old mayor Boodle’s care after Buggy’s  _ body parts _ flew over and attacked. The mayor left you in  _ my _ care after  _ stupidly  _ charging off to fight alongside him” 

Oh. That sort of made sense. But where was Nami when the dog was protecting the shop? Did she flee? Aria wouldn’t blame her if she did. She didn’t know for sure though. 

“And… you came here to rescue me”, she guessed, “How? Why?” 

Nami looked to the side with slight guilt in her gut and an embarrassed blush. 

“I… picked the lock. The fire wasn’t that big yet and the dog was out cold. But they’d buried you under  _ those _ ”, she pointed to sacks of pet food, “and then the obstacles at the door started burning. They wanted to  _ burn you to death _ and I felt… responsible, I guess” 

So she  _ had _ left them alone when the lion tamer attacked. She didn’t have any injuries, which supported that theory. But she probably hid nearby until the lion left and then debated whether to come for her or not. Aria smiled gratefully. 

“Thank you, Nami” 

“Don’t thank me yet. We’re still stuck in a room full of smoke” 

She frowned. That was true. And there were still hot sparks around. And small dying flames. She was wary of trying to waterbend again and she didn’t have enough water either way. There was no earth here and fire wouldn’t do any good. 

Wait. There  _ was _ earth there. She stared at the crispy potted plant’s soil. That… might be enough. She crawled over to keep from inhaling more smoke and let her hand hover over it. The floor felt hot under her knees and the soil had little sparks in it. She clenched her hand into a fist and the earth turned hard. Now she had the pot  _ and _ the soil as a bludgeon. 

“Stay back from the wall”, she told Nami as she picked the pot up and  _ punched _ the air. 

The pot shot through the wall with a loud crack and creak. It wasn’t  _ that _ big a hole. But the wall broke so she could most likely break more. She pulled the already-in-her-influence hard-as-rock flower pot back in and did it again next to it. The hole also had the advantage of clearing the smoke out a little. She did it again. But- 

"What's going-  _ Ngh!  _ Aria, STOP THAT!", Zoro shouted from the other side while blocking the pot with two of his swords. 

Aria immediately brightened and the pot dropped to the ground, shattering around the rock hard earth. 

"Zoro! Can you cut the wall?", she asked, coughing a little. 

Nami coughed too but was a little better since she'd kept her head low the whole time and  _ hadn't _ stood in the thick smoke. The only answer she got from the swordsman was a sliding noise and a part of the wall falling outwards. Zoro stood on the other side with his swords already in their sheaths. He looked at her and Nami with slight concern in his eyes. 

"You okay?", he asked as Aria climbed out with a relieved smile and helped Nami do the same. 

"Yeah. Just a little smoked. How was it?" 

"Pitiful swordsmanship. And too acrobatic to my tastes", he said with a disappointed frown. And there  _ was _ disappointment but he was content and happy that he  _ got  _ to fight someone a little stronger than the average goons. Or so Aria guessed. 

Nami eyed them both in a way that said she wished things would start making sense again. Normal swordsmen shouldn't be able to cut wood to pieces either, not so cleanly. Even if it was weakened by being burnt a little. 

Something went boom in another direction. Aria looked towards the rising smoke and then at her hurting leg. The fabric was stuck to it from the blood. She grimaced. She didn’t fancy another trip to fix her brain so the wound was staying there. Shushu had stopped howling and was now looking at them. At  _ Aria _ specifically. He felt thankful. Like he knew who stopped the fire. Aria smiled. 

“I’d bet a whole bottle of sake that that was our idiot captain”, Zoro commented idly. 

“No bet. Let’s go” 

They started running (Aria limping a bit) towards the chaos. Nami was running with out of curiosity and purpose. As for what purpose… 

“Hm? Why’re you coming?”, Zoro wondered. 

“That lion tamer took my treasure!” 

Yeah. That. 

xXXx

When they rounded to where the cannon had fired they saw the building with the Buggy Crew demolished and Luffy standing on the road and… Angry. Aria hadn’t really felt him be angry yet. It was… scary. Because… it seriously felt like the  _ universe was approving _ or something. 

“Don’t you dare…”, he growled, “mess up my  _ hat! _ ”

And indeed, the straw hat’s edge was sliced through. That. That felt like something that  _ should never happen _ . Ever. They had to fix it once this was over. Aria leaned against a wall with a sigh. She needed to rest her leg. It was throbbing form the run. Fiercely. 

Nami and Zoro were just standing there and gaping at the battle and conversation between Luffy and Buggy. Apparently the hat had been Shanks’ which, yeah. Explains a lot. She  _ had _ heard of Red-Haired Pirates. And Buggy was apparently  _ saved _ by the pirate when they were on the same ship. Luffy’s anger faded with the story. Aria grinned. The universe had been right once again and Luffy was a great captain and friend. Then her eyes caught something. 

Wait, was that the mayor? He was unconscious next to the wall. She knelt beside him to inspect what had happened and- The girl felt like facepalming. 

“Luffy! I  _ just _ healed him!”, she whined to her captain, “And head injuries are  _ dangerous! _ ”

Her captain glanced over, saw what she was talking about, and whined right back, “He’d’ve just gotten in the way! And he  _ left  _ you!” 

She conceded the point and supposed she should be glad the old man hadn’t gotten himself  _ killed _ . She didn’t heal him so he could throw his life away. Luffy felt happy. She looked up at him and smiled. 

“Kick Buggy into the stratosphere, Captain!”, she cheered. 

He tilted his head, “Star of pear?”

“THE SKY, YOU IDIOT!!”, Nami and Zoro cried in unison as Buggy’s upper body launched at him. 

“Oh!”, Luffy made a noise of understanding as he punched the flying body part to the ground with a grin. 

“Wrong direction”, Aria laughed. 

“DON’T LAUGH AT ME!”, the  _ clown _ shouted. 

…Sounded  _ counterintuitive _ to her. 

But knives were flying at her and she didn’t want to make the same mistake twice. Only, her leg hurt. She’d be able to block some but not  _ all _ . Luckily Zoro covered for her and hit them all away with his swords. She hummed in thanks, pleased, and punched a stream of fire past the swordsman at some approaching body parts. Buggy’s head screamed from under Luffy’s foot. They must be covered in burns now. 

“BARA BARA PARTS, GATHER!”, he shouted angrily and Luffy yelped in surprise as the head slipped out from underfoot. 

And… Buggy was a midget. Aria took one look and burst out laughing with Zoro. Nami was grinning next to them and had a stack of tied up body parts under  _ her  _ foot and leashed with the rope in her hand. 

Luffy laughed his signature laugh and shot his hands backwards, “That’s a cool trick, Nami! Gomu Gomu no… BAZOOKA!!” 

The other pirate captain was blasted off his tiny feet with a panicked shout that got smaller the farther in the sky he flew. Aria watched with an impressed whistle. Here’s hoping he landed safely. 

“Great job, Luffy! That’s the stratosphere, alright”, she congratulated. 

Her captain was silent though. And staring at the straw hat in his hand. 

“...Is the hat really so precious to you?”, Nami asked. 

“Yup! But it’s okay, I feel better now that Buggy’s gone!”

And it was true, Aria could tell. She smiled softly. Luffy just was so…  _ ture _ . There was a rasping sound from behind them. Everyone turned to see a very battered pair of tamer and lion. With two sacks of treasure in the pet's mouth. 

“How…  _ How did you survive the fire!? _ ”, he screeched at Aria who sighed, not wanting to deal with this. 

She still pointed at Nami and Zoro in answer. The tamer let out a shout that could’ve been a growl. 

Luffy frowned, “What fire?” 

“He locked Aria into the pet food store and stuck it on fire. She was unconscious so  _ I _ had to go get her out”, Nami explained with a harsh glare at the lion. 

Aria did a fair share of the getting out part, thanks. Zoro too. 

“ _ What!?  _ I wanna punch him to the star of pear too!! That store is Shushu’s treasure!”, Luffy declared with rekindled anger, raising his fist. 

“I stopped it from fully burning down, Luffy. Shushu is fine”, Aria told him. 

“ _ You… wench…! _ I should’ve let Richie  _ bite your leg off! _ ” 

The girl shuddered at the hate and imagery coming off of the pair and inched away from them while still staying in front of the mayor. Sadistic streaks from people were  _ scary. _ And made her feel like hiding or rubbing her skin raw to escape it. Her empathy was as helpful as it hindered her sometimes and was much rawer after brain scrambles. Luffy seemed to be  _ done _ with them, as did Zoro, if the way the straw hatted boy slammed the man off his lion and the swordsman cut up Richie were any indication. Their feelings of protective rage confirmed it. 

“Hey, watch out for my treasure!”, Nami admonished them but most of her feelings weren’t in it. She stalked up to the sacks and hoisted them into her arms. 

Of course  _ that _ was when the villagers decided to arrive. 

“We’re the people of this town. Did the pirates pick a fight amongst themselves?”, a pink haired man asked and Aria was reminded of Coby. If he were more confident. 

She replied readily, “Nah.  _ We _ picked a fight with them and won”

There were gasps from all around as they saw her kneeling by the village chief with a bloodied leg and cleaning blood from his forehead. 

“The chief!”

“What happened!?”

“It was definitely one of those pirates!”

Suddenly she was invaded by people from left and right and was overwhelmed by the worry and shock flowing off of the crowd. The girl shut her eyes to focus on herself before clearing her throat to answer some of their unasked questions. 

“He’s fine. There might be a mild concussion in the works but I healed his arm so infection isn’t happening”, she told everyone. 

There was some confusion and relief all around as the people closest to her and someone knelt down to inspect her leg. 

“That’s gotta hurt, miss. Were you running on it?”

“Here, let me”

Aria shifted uncomfortably. She was getting… claustrophobic. They were too close. She felt suffocated. Someone touched her shoulder and she flinched. 

“P- Please don’t…”, she trailed off with eyes clouding over as someone else grabbed her leg and she was assaulted by worry and anger and and relief and  _ contradicting emotions _ and  _ oh please not so many _ . 

She hadn’t really been in a crowd before. Hadn’t needed to learn shielding her empathy from being bombarded up close, not when it was this raw and sensitive. No one had really touched her  _ before _ . She could handle one or two but with a  _ crowd _ nearby…? No. Just no. Aria slammed a fist down and made the ground shake and people let go with yelps and-  _ urgh- _ more shock. She was sweaty and breathing a little harder. She reached for her crewmates, someone  _ familiar _ and a comfort. Not strangers. 

Zoro grabbed her outstretched hand and helped her up and she buried her empathy in the familiar loyalty and concern. Away from…  _ everything _ else. 

“ _ Please _ don’t get so close. I get… overwhelmed”, she addressed the gaping villagers and wincing as her leg throbbed. 

“Are you alright?”, Nami asked with a frown, two sacks of treasure in her arms. 

Aria took stock of herself and grimaced, “Almost… I can’t walk” 

Luffy tilted his head with a concerned look, “Why aren’t you healing it?”

“Don’t wanna faint”

“Oh”, he had a strange glint in his eyes. 

The girl wasn’t sure if she liked it. 

xXXx

“When I said I don’t mind if  _ you _ guys get close I didn’t mean you should  _ pick me up and run! _ ”, Aria lamented as she was carried through town by Zoro who was thankfully being careful of her leg. 

The green haired swordsman was radiating amusement as Luffy led them through streets, laughing.

“Sorry. Captain’s orders”, Zoro said with a wide grin. 

There was an angry mob behind them thinking that the trio of Luffy, Zoro, and Nami had  _ kidnapped _ her which… What? Well, okay Luffy’s abrupt declaration of being a pirate probably gave the right mentality to it. As well as his admission of knocking Boodle out. Buggy’s crew  _ had _ been terrorizing them too. 

Then Shushu showed up to block the villager’s path. Aria felt a small surge of affection for the dog. And the villagers that wanted to ‘save’ her. 

Even if they were quite overwhelming. 

They got to port quickly after that and went to the two smaller boats there. One of them had Buggy the Clown’s flag on the sail. And three familiar people on it. She sighed as Zoro scared them away and they climbed on their boats. Nami was coming with them. Aria was happy about that. She hadn’t been  _ completely _ sure the navigator would. 

Then the chief and some villagers ran up to the port when they’d departed. Chief shouted his thank yous and the villagers, who had apparently been explained stuff, joined in. She smiled and waved at them happily. Their relief and joy radiated over the ocean. Now if only the sun would set or the moon came up. Then she could heal her leg. And the small wound on Luffy’s temple. 

“ _ WHAT!?  _ YOU LEFT THE TREASURE ON THE ISLAND!?”, Nami screeched at her captain and shook him. 

“Yeah, lots of that town got destroyed. They’re gonna need it!”

Aria laughed along with Zoro as their new navigator thief tried to kinda-but-not drown Luffy. She loved this. Hopefully it would last. 

xXXx

There wasn’t too much happening in the next two days. Aria fixed Luffy’s hat with a needle and string borrowed from Nami. The thief girl revealed she had stolen Buggy’s map for Grand Line. Aria hadn’t known he had had one. They found an island with a ‘bush man’ that tried to chase them away to protect his strange animal friends. He’d been there for twenty years stuck inside a treasure chest. 

Yeah, that was weird. But fun. Like lots of things with Luffy were. 

She thought up new games for Luffy and her to try when he got bored. And hummed Dana’s songs sometimes. She sung them too when her captain asked. The girl declined being their musician though since she only knew how to play a guqin or a bamboo flute and even then she wasn’t  _ that _ good. It had, after all, been five years since she saw those instruments. Other lives didn't count here, not at all. Not since she was a bundle of people thrown together. She didn't  _ remember _ her other lives. Rina's lives. 

And then there was the time Zoro woke up and thought she was an imposter. 

To be fair, it had been mostly her fault. 

Aria woke up to Zoro's sharp alarm and her eyes flashed open to look for a threat… Only, there was a sword pointed at her. And Zoro was staring at  _ her _ in alarm. And his eyes were cold. Emotions worried, confused and  _ angry _ at her? 

_ What?  _

"Who are you?", he growled over Luffy's snoring. 

Aria was confused. She frowned up at the swordsman but then remembered that it was  _ night _ . Oops. She should've mentioned this sooner. 

"I'm Aria", she said as calmly as she could. 

The sword was moved a little closer and she winced. 

"Don't lie to me. What did you do to her?", Zoro pressed, anger spiking and she withheld the urge to flinch away. 

She glared up at him, a little hurt but a little heartened that he worried, "I'm not  _ lying _ . We met at the Marine Base in Shell Town and I cleaned up that riceball for you" 

The sword lifted a little and Zoro's eyebrows shot up his forehead. His emotional scale leaned towards was sceptical and shocked and feeling like the world tilted sideways. 

"What did I ask you when we left Shell Town?", he frowned, wanting to be sure. 

"'Luffy is a rubber man… but what are  _ you? _ ' I said 'Element bender'", Aria answered promptly. 

The sword fell away and Zoro felt  _ baffled _ . Blank faced. Detached as he tried to  _ process _ it. 

"Zoro? Aria? What's going-  _ Who are you!? _ ", Nami demanded. 

"I'm Aria" 

"She's  _ Aria _ " 

Zoro sounded like he didn't quite believe it. Nami looked like she didn't believe it either. She was a second away from doing something stupid. Like tying her up and interrogating her. Aria didn’t fancy that but knew that Zoro wouldn’t let it happen. 

Then Luffy woke up. 

"Hrmh? What're you guys… Eh? Aria, why are you  _ brown? _ ", he exclaimed in bewilderment. 

Well. At least her captain recognized her. Much to the disbelief of her other crewmates. She sighed. It looked like it was time for some explanations. 

"Okay, look. My powers are strange", a snort from Zoro as he felt it was an understatement but he put his sword away, "My waterbending prefers this dark skinned, dark haired, blue eyed form and night time", Nami inhaled sharply as shock entered her system which was… a little weird, "My earthbending likes to be light skinned, gold haired, green eyed and loves the evening. My firebending would want me to be a black haired boy but if I changed to that in the middle of the the day people would have  _ questions _ so I trained to be a girl"

“And… airbending?”, Zoro asked. 

Aria looked quite put upon, “It’s… complicated” 

“ _ Un _ complicate it then”, Nami demanded with a frown, still feeling a degree of wariness, shock and… pity along with those protective feelings her crew had when any of them was in danger.  _ What?  _

“Well. I can airbend the easiest in the morning, kinda. And it… doesn’t have a preference other than ‘be a girl’, which I use to keep my form female even when firebending. It sort of fills everything so I’m… complete”

“What if you  _ stopped _ doing that?”, the swordsman asked warily from his newly revealed  _ shapeshifter _ crewmate. 

“My body and personality would switch between all four randomly which would mess me up. I'd…  _ flicker _ . It was why I fainted after healing Boodle, so I could fix my head”

“…Right”, Zoro felt like he didn't really get it. 

Nami was calmer now and seemed to even have a new kind of resolve in her. She was also feeling oddly pensive. 

“So, you could become a boy anytime you want?”, she asked. 

“During the day, yes”

The navigator felt satisfied. 

Luffy had been oddly quiet. Except Aria knew his emotions said he was  _ excited _ and thought she was  _ cool _ or something similar. There was also the sparkles in his eyes that gave a clue. He hit his palm with a grin with a satisfied nod. 

“It’s a mystery power!”

Nami and Zoro facepalmed. Aria herself smiled and nodded. It  _ was _ a mystery as to how she got it. Her two ‘sane’ crewmates looked at her like she was crazy. Truthfully, sometimes she was. But that could never muddle her morals so it was fine. 

xXXx

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's all I have for this. At least for the moment. Now I'm back to focusing on other fics in this series. Thanks for reading and I hope you liked it!


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